Retailer Accidentally Sells iPads For Dollars, Begs Customers For Returns

Black Friday sales typically begin before Black Friday actually arrives, and that was the case again in 2025. Retailers around the world promoted lower prices, including laptop deals at Best Buy. So when the iPad Air dropped in price from $1,012 to $17 on MediaWorld's website in late November, customers snatched it up quicker than you can say "Christmas miracle." But that miracle was a mistake, and now the Italian company wants the iPads back.

Wired broke the story of MediaWorld's blunder, which saw shoppers buy the iPads online and pick them up in-person with no issues. The mistake wasn't discovered until 11 days after the fact, and MediaWorld promptly reached out to customers via email. The company wants the iPads, which might be a viable alternative to the MacBook Air, to be returned for a $17 refund, plus a $23 discount toward a future purchase. Or customers can choose to pay around $821 to keep them. MediaWorld contends that Italian regulations enable them to void the sales since the error was obviously an error.

But there's a question of what shoppers are supposed to recognize, versus what the company outright tells them. Also, under the same regulations, customers should've been contacted by mail, and not email. As of this writing, MediaWorld has not announced whether it will continue to demand that customers take action to correct the company's pricing mistake, or if the sales will be allowed to stand.

MediaWorld's iPad pricing error in November 2025 isn't the first time an online retailer experienced a major E-commerce issue. In 2010, Las Vegas-based clothing company Zappos lost over $1.6 million thanks to its sister website, 6pm. The 6pm site suddenly maxed all items out at a price of $49.95. The mistake went unnoticed for six hours, but rather than contacting customers, Zappos, which is one of the brands owned by Amazon, ate the loss instead.

Anthropologie, a clothing and lifestyle retail brand headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, made a big mistake of its own in 2017. One of the company's high-end sectional couches, regularly retailing for $8,000, was actually marked down to $0. Customers only had to pay the $149 delivery charge. Many people jumped on the offer, but the company discovered the mistake, and cancelled all the orders. Similar 100 percent-discounted glitches have occurred in other companies too, including handbag retailer Marc Jacobs in 2022. In this case, the company also managed to catch the error before any orders were fulfilled.

The problem for consumers is that there's no real way to know if website prices are incorrect. Even hugely discounted items might be right, and while "free" sounds too good to be true, if the offer is still online hours afterward, it can be impossible to know for sure. Of course, the only thing you can do is click, or ignore, and either way, you might be disappointed in the end.